Kenneth
Abraham
is a wildlife biologist and conservation manager working
primarily
in arctic coastal ecosystems and the Hudson Bay Lowlands.
He continues to study brant, Canada
and lesser snow goose populations as well as goose-plant interactions
extensively
within
this region. He also studies the ecology of a
variety of
shorebirds and sea duck species. He is very interested in developing
methods for the rapid assessment of habitat damage. He is an Emeritus
Research
Scientist in the Wildlife Research and Development Section, Ontario
Ministry of
Natural Resources, and an Adjunct Professor at Trent University.

Rod Brook is a
wildlife biologist examining the population dynamics and
in community ecology
of arctic breeding geese and ducks throughout the
Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Hudson Bay Lowlands. He is
especially interested in developing fixed-wing based photographic
systems to assess degradation and recovery of coastal tundra and boreal
ecosystems. He is a Research Scientist in the
Wildlife
Research and
Development Section, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

Brian Darby
is a soil ecologist interested in nematodes and other
microinvertebrates in an ecological genomics framework. He uses
molecular and sequencing tools to characterize soil microbial and
microfaunal communities, identify genetic loci of adaptive
significance, and understand how genetic differences between organisms
affect their roles in ecosystem functioning. He also uses molecular
tools to answer basic questions of wildlife ecology and natural history
or to facilitate non-invasive monitoring of wildlife. He leads our
polar bear genetics team. He is an Assistant Professor at the
University of North Dakota.

Susan
Ellis-Felege
is a wildlife ecologist with broad interests in behavior, species’
interactions and community dynamics. Her research uses state
of
the art tools for data acquisition including remote camera traps and
videography as well as unmanned aviation vehicles (UAV’s) with multiple
sensors. She has developed citizen science based programs to extract
data from the images obtained and uses quantitative and spatial (GIS)
tools to analyze the data. She is an Assistant Professor at
the
University of North Dakota.

Scott
McWilliams
is a nutritional and physiological ecologist whose interests center on
wild vertebrates, with an emphasis on species of conservation
interest. He uses an integrative approach that combines work
on
metabolic physiology, membrane transport of nutrients, digestive
physiology, nutritional requirements, feeding behavior, ecological
energetics, and constraints on prey and predator form and
function. The goal is to understand how these traits jointly
affect the animal’s ecology and influence community dynamics.
He
is a Professor at the University of Rhode Island.

Robert Rockwell
is a population
biologist whose interests have centered on
population dynamics, lifetime reproductive success and genetic
structure of arctic geese and ducks. He has
more
recently focused his interests on the effects of climate change on the
interactions of geese with their graminoid forage species
and predators including grizzly and polar
bears. He is also interested in the terrestrial foraging strategies of
polar bears and how these are changing in the face of climate change.
He is a Professor at the City University of New York and the
American Museum of Natural History.

Dr. Kathleen Schnaars-Uvino
is an ecologist with broad interests in both birds and
plants.
She is interested in the recovery of habitat, severely degraded by
destructive snow goose foraging and oversees our recovery ecology
program. She is also interested in the declines in avian
insectivores and their population trends, behavior and niche
requirements, at and beyond the historic range. She is currently
examining this by providing and monitoring artificial nest boxes to
tree swallows north of tree line. She has involved the Churchill
community in the work as citizen scientists. She is an
Assistant
Professor at the University of Jamestown.

Andrew Barnas,
Biology Department, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202.
Andrew is a graduate student whose interests include the use
of
UAV's in monitoring nesting snow geese and eider ducks, the use of
video recordings to evaluate the reaction of nest snow geese and eider
ducks to predators and the use of molecular techniques to evaluate the
local abundance and relatedness of polar bears.

Kim
Bennett, Wildlife Research and
Development Section, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, DNA Bldg.,
Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario K9J 7B8 Canada. Kim is a wildlife research technician with over 7
years of field experience working in the Hudson Bay Lowlands.
She has been involved with studies that include population
monitoring and nesting ecology of Canada and lesser snow goose
populations.

Michael Corcoran,
Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC), University of
North
Dakota, Grand Forks, ND. Mike is the Chief Pilot and
Operations
Manager for our unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program. The
aim of
that program is to use survey grade aircraft to monitor nesting and
nesting success of snow geese and common eiders, to map levels of
habitat degradation and change and to detect cultural resources. Before
coming to UND and the Hudson Bay Project, Mike was a Blackhawk
helicopter pilot for the US Army.

Sarah
Cronell,
Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology (E3B) Department,
Columbia University, NY, NY. Sarah is a Master’s student with interests
in population dynamics and conservation genetics research. Her work
utilizes camera traps for the monitoring of common eider nests and to
identify the primary predators responsible for nest failures. She hopes
to develop models that will predict future population dynamics of the
common eider that can be used for population management purposes.

Chris Felege, Biology
Department, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND. Chris is a
member of our UAV flight team and very involved in the logistical
issues of that program. Given his training in science
education,
he will be heading up our community outreach program that will involve
local students in our work. Chris brings his
experience as a
combat veteran to all aspects of the field work of the Hudson Bay
Project.

Sarah Hagey,
Wildlife Research and Development Section, Ontario Ministry of
Natural Resources and Forestry, Peterborough, Ontario. She is
a
wildlife research technician and has been working in the Hudson Bay
Lowlands for 15 years. Sarah has been heavily involved with
nesting ecology studies and banding of Canada Geese and Snow Geese as
well as many other projects related to plant communities, goose-plant
interactions and habitat assessment and degradation. She is
considered the “go-to” person for most everything related to the field
program.

Sam Hervey,
Biology Department, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202.
Sam is an undergraduate student whose interests include the
use
of UAV's
in monitoring nesting snow geese and eider ducks, the use of
molecular techniques to evaluate the local
abundance and relatedness of polar bears and the use of molecular
techniques to estimate the levels of nest parasitism and extra pair
bond copulation in snow geese and eider ducks.

Dave
Iles, Department of Wildland Resources, Utah State
University, Logan, UT 84322. Dave continues to examine the dynamics of
common eiders nesting in the Mast River and Wao Wao Creek in
Wapusk National Park. He is especially interested in the impact of
climate change on those dynamics. Part of that impact is a
shifting of predator loads and he is expanding that as part of his
Ph.D. work, looking directly at impacts of polar and grizzly bears on
common eiders and snow geese on the Cape Churchill Peninsula.

Marissa
Rabadi, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY.
Marissa is a recent graduate of the City College of New York,
an environmental enthusiast and aspiring physician. She will be working
with the Common Eider team this summer and will head up our attempts to
sort out what the nesting females are eating during the
incubation period. She will
also be involved in bird surveys and ground-truthing vegetation
transects as part of our UAS work.

Tanner Stechmann,
Biology Department, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.
Tanner is a graduate student whose interests include the use of
miniature surveillance cameras to study nesting behaviors of common
eiders and the use of isotopes to investigate potential diet shifts
that may contribute to changes in breeding behaviors and reproductive success.

Frank
Uvino, Broad Channel, NY. Frank, using the
helicopter to move lumber, is the facilities manager at the La
Pérouse Bay Research Station. He has overseen construction of
our three new buildings and has made sure they have lights, heat and
running water. He is working towards making the facility more
ecologically friendly. He makes the finest meat
balls on earth.

Chris
Witte, San Diego, CA. Chris is the chief
naturalist on the Cape Churchill Peninsula. He is a mainstay
of our plant and avian survey work - shown here during our
boreal forest inventory work for Wapusk National Park. He
works on all apsects of the snow goose program. He is also a
skilled builder.